I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

Former President Jimmy Carter announced Wednesday that he has cancer, and will be undergoing treatment in his home state of Georgia.

“Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” he said. “I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare.”

I wouldn’t wish cancer on my worst enemy. Especially the kind that’s metastasized, which is what it sounds like it’s done here. So you should probably pray for the man and his loved ones, if you haven’t already. I have.

Somebody cruel asked former President Carter what his biggest failure was. His answer? “I guess my biggest failure was not getting re-elected.”

Which sort of misses the point, doesn’t it? Because from what I dimly remember of the time period – and have read since – Carter didn’t lose because of the hostages, or because of the malaise, or because of the stagflation, or even because of the killer rabbit. He lost because he was… well, Jimmy Carter. It was a package deal, in other words.

Moe Lane

PS: Also from that interview: “I did the best I could, but I failed.”

(pause)

“You did the best that you could” is what we tell our children in order to keep them from despairing at ever learning how to master the skill of winning, Mr. President. In an adult such excuse-making is highly unseemly.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any actions that may have caused distress.

In a letter to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published Monday, Carter offered a holiday message wishing for an Arab-Israeli peace.

“We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel,” Carter’s message said. “As I would have noted at Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het (a plea for forgiveness) for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”

Via AoSHQ. It says something about Jimmy Carter that wanting to help his grandkid’s electoral chances would be the nice reason why he’s doing it: all the other ones are either less charitable, or else would put too many people’s hopes up.

That being Woodrow Wilson, who almost certainly should have been resigned after he had that stroke. With that caveat noted, I’ll not contest Senator McCain’s assertion that Carter was the worst President of the 20th Century. 20th and 19th? I dunno: besides Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan left the bar on that very low. Or high. Or something.

Moe Lane

Although Carter does get one morsel of credit for the home-brewing thing. Doesn’t make up for the rest of it, but it’s there.

While Jon Henke is correct – at this time the Carter Center remains completely silent regarding yesterday’s Iranian election fraud – the former President has made a statement on the topic. One that is incompatible with any stance that considers what’s happening over there to be election fraud.

Carter said US policy would remain the same “because the same person will be there” in brief remarks after he met Palestinian officials in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

[snip]

Carter — who was president during Iran’s 1979 revolution that toppled the US-backed shah and the hostage crisis that followed — said the strength of the opposition during the campaign may push Ahmadinejad to “modify” his policies.

“I think this election brought a lot of opposition to his policy in Iran and I am sure he will listen to this opposition and may modify (it).”